Today I got my Cingular Novatel Wireless U730 data card in the mail.
The person I bought it from claimed that it was barely used, and I
could tell that it was as stated. I opened it up today and *attempted*
to get it working. The packaging specifically instructed me to install
that Cingular Communications Manager before inserting the card into the
computer. I already had version 5.3 installed, so I went ahead and
continued onto the Device Wizard. I told it my device was a PC card,
and then it asked for me to insert the card into the card slot, which I
did. Windows recgonized the device and started doing it's thing, but
the Cingular Communications Manager never did let me progress with the
device install. It wouldn't let me click next, as if the card wasn't
even inserted.

Upon inserting the card it messed up my notebook speakers for a little
while, channeling an interfearance noise through them for a while. The
LED indicator on the card blinked from purple, to green, and then to
solid red. Nothing seemed to be working. I tried removing the card and
starting over, but then the card wouldn't even "power up" and turn its
red LED light on as it did during the last attempt. I called Cingular,
and I got routed a few different times. From customer service, to
technical support, to tier II technical support, and then Advanced Data
Support, then over to Laptop Connect Support. The representative was
nice, but wasn't so helpful. He just identified that the NEC PCI to USB
driver was appearing in the device manager, but the modem driver was
not being installed. He basically considered the card to be dead, but
since I've had no other notebook to test with, I can't tell for sure.

I've never had any problems tethering my Razr to my notebook as a
device to connect through, but this data card is really being a pain.
I've spent half a day trying to figure out what's wrong, and no
solution. Any ideas?



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